Bruce begins by explaining that until he was in his mid-forties he was a knee-jerk skeptic, though not of the militant variety. He simply dismissed all talk of the paranormal as irritating nonsense. But in the early 1990s, his worldview started to change. He writes:

I found myself becoming interested in certain ideas, experiences, and phenomena I had long dismissed, even ridiculed.

For one thing, I began to pay attention to the fact that some of my dreams seemed to correlate with later events in ways that were difficult to explain .…

But despite my newfound openness, I wasn’t blind to the laws of probability. I reasoned that given a large number of dreams and the potential for matching them with an even larger pool of waking events, striking similarities were bound to occur from time to time.

Inspired by J.W. Dunne’s famous 1927 book An Experiment with Time, Bruce decided to document his dreams and see how well they matched up with future events. Ultimately he logged 241 dreams. Remarkably enough, approximately one in four of them came true – “usually within hours.” Some came true almost immediately after waking. This success rate is far above random chance, especially considering the decidedly out-of-the-ordinary subject matter in many of these dreams.

A large part of the book concerns the methods Bruce used to remember his dreams and record them in detail, and the ways in which he improved his methodology. For example, he found that a dream, in order to be worth recording, had to involve something specific and unusual. A dream about eating breakfast had no value in his experiment, because he ate breakfast every day. Recurrent dreams were not helpful, because it could be assumed that, if he dreamed of the same thing over and over, eventually it would have to correlate with something in real life, if only by chance. He also developed precise criteria for distinguishing among dreams of no precognitive value, dreams that might or might not have had precognitive value, and dreams that were definite hits. He explains how he tabulated the statistical results, and how the results might vary if different criteria were applied.

Though Bruce describes a number of his dreams and the real-life observations that correlated with them, he recognizes that the reader is not likely to be completely convinced by someone else’s experience. That’s why the main focus of the book is to encourage us to carry out the experiment for ourselves. He provides a great deal of useful advice on how to get started.

The book inspired me to begin my own experiment. So far, I can’t claim results as good as one in four. I would say I’ve had one likely hit, one "maybe," and the rest have been duds. But I haven’t been doing it for very long, and I’m not yet skilled at remembering my dreams.

Besides the important contribution Dreaming the Future makes to the literature on precognitive dreaming, the book also offers Bruce’s reflections on the wider meaning of it all. In a chapter titled “The Real Subject Here is Consciousness,” informed in part by his study of near-death experiences and related phenomena, he suggests that

time and consciousness are inseparable. Time, in this view, is actually a dimension of reality created by consciousness within itself, so that we might explore certain kinds of experience.

And the same is true for what we call “space.”

Time and space, in other words, are props devised by Mind for much the same reason that storytellers and game designers devise the rules and frameworks that characterize their creations: to spawn worlds within which epic adventures can unfold .…

[I]n recalling these deeper truths, in discovering that we are more than we think we are, we find reason to trust that the difficulties we face in this life aren’t the whole story.

The book closes with an extensive list of resources for further study and several appendices fleshing out the dreams covered in the main text. Full disclosure: my name crops up a couple of times in the book, once in connection with a precognitive dream described in Chapter 9, which was validated by a comment Bruce read on this blog.

Beyond all the other admirable qualities of Dreaming the Future, the book consistently addresses open-minded skeptics in a friendly, non-confrontational way. Unlike some pro-paranormal writers who stigmatize all skeptics or simply ignore them, Bruce wants to reach out and gently persuade people to open up to the possibility of precognition and try it for themselves. He takes care to consider alternative explanations for the hits he describes, and although he's personally convinced of the validity of his findings, he understands that the whole idea of foreseeing future events may strike some reasonable people as impossible or absurd.

His basic attitude is: see for yourself. He believes there's nothing special about his own precognitive abilities, and that similar results can be obtained by anyone who tries.

I liked this book a lot, both for its content and its tone. I highly recommend Dreaming the Future.

Though you newcomers to this blog know me as someone who submits a brief comment or wisecrack now and then, the fact is, I've been particpating in these discussions for at least 15 years. And during much of that time, I was writing commentaries that were pretty long-winded. Some of them rival my book in length. (Just kidding. The book is substantial, though not epic.)

Tell me, Michael—have any of your followers been here longer?

Anyway, as I point out in Chapter 25, where I talk about some of my heroes in this field, I owe much of my progress as a writer (if there's been any) to hashing stuff out in this forum, week after week. Dialoguing with all of you, while trying to match the standards set by essays as compelling as our host's—well, for me, it's been an apprenticeship of sorts.

So—if you like my book, great. And if not, it's probably Michael's fault.

Two persons that proved that precognition is real are Malcolm Bessent and Dale Graff. Bessent is deceased, but he passed in controlled experiments by 25 ou 30 years by multiple scientists (Krippner and Honorton, for example). Dale Graff is alive and has more than 10 years in controlled experiments with wonderful results.

Maybe Bruce Siegel would like to be a subject in controlled experiments too? ;-)

Andrew Pacquette has also been keeping an extensive log concerning pre-cognitive dreams. He has been applying some rigorous analysis. We have had some very good discussions around this. I hope he will be publishing one of these days as his work is excellent and the precognitive content is stunning at times.

My own sometimes profound precognitive dreams is what originally got me interested in the paranormal.

I agree 100% with Bruce's statement concerning the wider meaning of it all. It would be hard not to once one has had non-dismissable precognitive dreams.

Unfortunately, I rarely recall dreams unless they are unusually attention getting. I tried to keep a log like Bruce and Andrew, but I just don't remember my day to day dreams often enough to make a log work for me.

Very interesting. I have had several amazing precognitive dreams. One time I dreamed that someone gave me two huge bass. In my dream I remember seeing the building and about how big the bass were. There was a lot of emotion attached to the dream so I remembered it and kept going over it in my head so I remembered. I was very excited about these two bass because I like to eat (a lot) and when I was fishing I had never caught anything as huge as these two bass.

So I kept thinking about it and wondering if it would come true? It took two years and one day my neighbor called me up and told me that he and his buddies had gone fishing and asked me if I wanted a couple of fish. They had caught a whole bunch of Striped Bass at Douglas Lake in East Tennessee. So I went over to my neighbor's house and lo and behold he gave me two huge, about ~ 16 and ~ 18 lb, bass! I was flabbergasted. By the way when I was filleting those bass I sliced one of my fingers real good. That also evoked a lot of emotion.

I also dreamed of the Columbia disaster about a week before it happened. In my dream I saw the shuttle break up and parts of it fell in my back yard. I remember trying to get my camera so I could take pictures of it but by the time I got my camera the Feds had all ready cleaned it up. I actually documented this dream on the Near-death.com message board and after it happened someone remarked that what happened was very similar to what actually happened the shuttle.

I dreamed about the collapse of a bridge. In my dream a boat ran into the bridge and hit a piling and it fell. A couple of weeks later the exact same thing happened on I-40 in Oklahoma and if I remember correctly a couple cars fell in the river.

One last thing... In my dream I dreamed that I saw terrorists trying to blow up a dam. By this time I knew that I was having precognitive dreams so I actually called the FBI office in Knoxville and said to them "You're going to think I'm crazy but I've had dreams before that have come true. Last night I dreamed about terrorists trying to blow up a dam." The FBI guy said to me "we don't think you're crazy and thank you for calling. We lived about 7 miles from Norris Dam and a week later a ranger at the state park there caught two Egyptian guys on top of the Dam at 5:30 am taking pictures of the Dam. These guys had fake driver's licenses from North Carolina and were in the country illegally. It was close to our house and it was only like a week after the dream and I had actually called the FBI!

Like my mom used to say to me sometimes "truth is stranger than fiction." I seem to dream things that I will later see in my own life. It has something to do with how much emotion it evokes in me and it being attached to my own life.

And by the way I have no control over when or how these dreams happen. I can't make them happen, they just do.

Oh, Vitor, I forgot to add this: Dale Graff is mentioned in my book. His private experiments in precognitive dreaming led to results similar to some of the cases I present: instances in which I woke up from a dream, and almost immediately encountered a real-life matching event.

Fascinating experiences, Art! You sound like a psychic dreamer, for sure.

"It has something to do with how much emotion it evokes in me and it being attached to my own life. "

Interesting point. In my book, I list 7 criteria for evaluating the strength of the psychic evidence in our dreams, and one of them has to do with how deeply the matching event affects us.

But there's a caveat: While some of my predicted events have affected me emotionally, they're often merely *interesting.*

Michael and I were just talking about this in a private conversation. To save re-writing my thoughts, here's what I emailed him:

"You've got me thinking about my own dreams. While most of them predict future experiences that grab my attention, occasionally it's hard to figure out why a particular event would prompt a dream.

All things being equal, I "score" a precognitive dream higher if it predicts an event that's meaningful, because that undermines the skeptical argument that I'm grabbing on to random, pointless, pseudo-correlations.

In my book, the event that had the least intrinsic meaning for me was the email in the honey-trap case. And it's probably no coincidence that that dream came true the quickest—just 5 minutes. I say that partly because the odds of having a memorable experience within a few minutes of any given dream are small.

But there's another reason. Think about this in reverse, with respect to dreams of the past: you're not likely to dream about something that happened to you many years ago, unless it made a big impact. But if something happened just a few hours ago, even it were minor, it might conceivably trigger a dream.

Similarly, something that happens just a few minutes from now might trigger a dream simply because of the proximity in time, even if the interest factor is fairly low. And that could be the case with your dream."

Does this makes sense to you, Art?

By the way, in referencing Michael's dream, I was talking about an impressive result he had as a result of recording his very first dream!

"His private experiments in precognitive dreaming led to results similar to some of the cases I present: instances in which I woke up from a dream, and almost immediately encountered a real-life matching event. "

Among the many precog experiences I was having at the time that convinced me that I wasn't crazy and that this stuff is real is an experience I had one morning. I thought I had been awakened by the phone ringing. I got up and answered the phone. It was a woman with an obvious African American accent, middle aged sounding, asking if William was available. She sounded kind of desperate. This was approx. 1985. I had an unlisted number and had the same number at that point for a couple years. I can't recall having gotten wrong number calls and I didn't know any African American women, especially not of age group.

Since the woman sounded like really needed to talk to William and I didn't have any friends with that name, let a lone a roommate, I felt a little sorry for the woman and told her I was very sorry that she had the wrong number. She then apologized to me.

Then I woke up. It had all been a very clear dream (actually, I would say it was an OBE). As soon as I realized it hadn't really happened - maybe ten seconds max - the phone rang and it was the exact same voice asking the exact same question (with the slight alteration of asking for "Bill" instead of "William". The conversation went exactly the same.

I had a lot of those events happening around that time. I also had OBEs (as I conceived of the experience then) in which I clearly saw some idiosyncratic events that then repeated/came true in the waking world; usually within a week, but in one serious incident, a couple months later.

Getting to the point now....a minority of these precognitive experiences were related to emotional events; one event being extremely emotional to the point where it still effects me 30 years after the fact. But mostly these were trivial events. yet they were unique enough to prove to me that precog is real. It's like I wanted to prove it and something responded by identifying unique events that would satisfy my need for proof beyond coincidence and randomness. At least that's how I can get myself to see it. Don't know if it's actually true or not; especially since others seem to note the triviality of a lot of this stuff.

Anyhow, thx again Bruce. I will have to read your book. I find this aspect of the paranormal to be fascinating!

Wow—what a powerful one, Eric! I just realized: since I published this book, people are sharing all these examples that might work well in a second book. Would you mind if I quote you? And if so, can I use your name?

Same question for you, Art!

Speaking of dreams that come true quickly, I'd like to share one now, with Michael's permission. (Just delete this, Michael, if you'd prefer.)

After reading my book, Michael was inspired to being recording his own dreams. The very first one he documented, shared all this common ground with something that took place within 15 minutes of his waking up:

1. Michael sees (in both dream and event he is a witness rather than a participant)

2. a group of shore-loving, light-colored marine birds,

3. the size of geese or flamingos.

4. They are packed together in a small, enclosed, man-made, space,

5. that's bordered on at least one side by a brick wall.

6. Someone is troubled by these birds invading their space,

7, on the ground,

8. acting strangely.

9. And the birds keep coming back.

Now what are the odds of matching so many quirky specifics *within 15 minutes*? Without psi, should this sort of strangeness turn up every third dream? Every fourth? Or should it take a hundred—or a thousand? Or more?

For me, it happens with one in four dreams I document. I hope Michael keeps recording his dreams so we can learn more from him, and that others of you will try the experiment too!

"But mostly these were trivial events. yet they were unique enough to prove to me that precog is real."

Eric, to be clear, this is exactly true for me. To steal a passage from my book (rather than taking the time to re-express it):

"The dreams we’ll be exploring and the events they foreshadow are often trivial. In contrast to the profoundly moving spiritual experiences that surround near-death (a phenomenon I brought to your attention in Chapter One) most of the examples in this book are mundane (not in the sense of ordinary, but earthly).

But then, I’m not excited about these dreams because I find their narratives inspiring. They thrill me, and have indeed changed my life, because by predicting the unpredictable, they’ve opened my eyes to a universe radically different from the one I thought I knew."

And thanks, too, for your thoughtfulness as to my royalty. I'm telling people to buy it from Amazon because it's easier and probably quicker.

"Oddly, I do not have them myself!"

It's interesting how different people have different psychic strengths. But a major theme of the book is how precognition hides in plain sight, and when you learn why and how, maybe (like me) you'll be in for a surprise.

"It would make more of an impression on doubters (if that's what one wants to do) to post one's dreams on a psychic predition registry site. "

Two points to be made here:

1. My book focuses on what I call garden variety psychic dreams. These are not the sort that would enable someone to predict an event and submit it to a registry. Take Michael's dream, the one whose correlations I posted. It was only after the fact, that Michael understood what the actual matching event would be.

One advantage of writing about garden variety dreams (as I did): they're the most common sort, the kind that are most useful in helping ordinary low-level psychics (like me) prove the paranormal to ourselves.

2. As to making an impression on doubters (as you put it), precognition seemed so absolutely impossible to me, that, in this world of fake news, I question whether I would ever have believed in it 100% without my own personal experience.

Oh—I have a third point, too, Roger: you make an appearance in the book on page 63, last sentence.

\\"Does this makes sense to you, Art?" and "Would you mind if I quote you? And if so, can I use your name?" - Bruce//

Yes Bruce you can use my stories and my name. I will probably never write a book about my mystical or spiritual experiences. Someone might find them useful or comforting?

Yes time does seem to enter into triggers of dreams? So it is emotion + time = greater likelihood of triggering a dream.

I'll tell you something else strange is I buy lottery tickets sometimes. I am 64 years old and sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night to use the restroom (it's an old man thing) and I'll go on the computer to check my lottery ticket. Now the interesting thing is that sometimes the number of the Mega ball or Powerball (the last number drawn) pops into my head right before I see the numbers. Like just a few seconds before I see the numbers. Like I will know what that ball is going to be before I even see it.

One time I was at a dinner party for my wife's Tai Chi group in Knoxville, Tennessee and we were at a Chinese Buffet and they were giving out door prizes and one of the prizes was for two free dinners at this restaurant. I was holding my ticket and before they called out the number I had this strange euphoric feeling and knew that they were going to call my numbers and that we had won the two free dinners. I knew for sure before hand that we had won. It was sort of a giddy feeling.

My experiences with precognitive dreams and stories I've read have made me question just how much the future is set and about free will and predestination.

By the way my favorite "life after death" stories are death bed vision and nearing death awareness stories. I find them endlessly uplifting and comforting and something just strikes me as being true when I read them. Like death bed visions and life after death just sort of sound like they'd go together while we are in the process of dying.

I wonder why state lottery commissions don't try releasing winning numbers in stages over several days, to build up suspense among the pool of potential winners. E.g., release the first three digits on day 1, the middle three on day 2, and the last three on day 3.

"My experiences with precognitive dreams and stories I've read have made me question just how much the future is set and about free will and predestination."

Yes, it's a complex subject. Personally, I'm confident we have the power to make choices while we're here—meaningful ones. Otherwise, life would be a cruel joke indeed.

Precognitive dreams offer some clues. One of my young students (as described in my book) once dreamt about a playground accident. It came true the next day in incredible detail. It was as though he lived the accident once while dreaming, and once in real life.

But there was a difference: on the playground, he knew which direction to turn—and when—so his friend wouldn't land on his arm and break it, as happened in the dream.

So which version was the real one? Is there a universe in which he actually did break his arm? Some people think so, and talk about *possible* futures—they say that ultimately, *all* roads are taken and explored.

Bruce, I actually have the more powerful and compelling experiences written our for posterity. I did this several years ago as my memory of older events is increasingly not as good as it once was. Since this is a topic of great interest to both of us, I'd be happy to share, but I don't think this is the appropriate place to post lengthy detailed accounts. Are you on facebook? Or you could have Michael pass me an email address. Whatever you wish.

You may use my name, but, the problem is that the name I use on the web isn't exactly my real name. By far the most powerful precog event I could offer up involves something that came to pass quite publicly and could easily be verified, but my name would have to match the name involved in the incident to be taken seriously. I would be comfortable privately providing my real name to you and for you to include it in a book as long as you don't do too much to link it back to my on line handle. Let me know.

\\"Personally, I'm confident we have the power to make choices while we're here—meaningful ones. Otherwise, life would be a cruel joke indeed." Bruce//
----------

Why? If this Earth life is a school and isn't our permanent home and we are only here for a little while, the blink of an eye compared to eternity, and we are meant to experience a few important lessons, and those lessons have to evoke lots of emotion so we remember them, then why is it so important that we have free will?

I taught 9th Grade Physical Science for a year and half. I was a disaster as a teacher because I was too soft. It is the teachers that are in control of their classroom that are the most effective teachers. They make detailed lesson plans and at the top of the lesson plan an objective is written out about what the student will learn by the end of the lesson. Maybe life is the way it is on purpose but after we cross over we'll look back on this life like it "a dream in itself" to quote Michelle M's NDE, or a "hoax or illusion" to quote Roger Ebert's final moments with his wife or the universe as a hologram essay?

It's important for us to think it's all real and we have free will but maybe deep down there is a hidden dimension that is guiding us, a dimension written or controlled by mathematics and physics, that guides us to experience certain important things like duality and separation, time and space, and being in a body and control of the body, and what it was like to live in a 3 dimensional + 1 time Universe?

Life isn't meant to be easy or a "bowl of cherries" to quote my mom. Life is supposed to be hard and evoke enough emotion to overcome those feelings of oneness and connectedness and lack of time and space on the other side (as described by Mark H in his NDE description on the NDERF site). Life is the way it is in order to make sure we learn the things we came here to learn, and enough of it to make sure we learn what it means and how it feels to be separate, what it means and how it feels to be in a body and control that body, and the parameters of that body, and what time and space look and feel like so that after we cross over we wont' simply merge back into the great collective consciousness and lose our identity.

The other side seems to be a place where thoughts are things and consciousness creates reality and where time and space are much more flexible than there are where we are now.

Bruce, I like how you link the strength of precognitive dreams to emotion.

Art also talks about the importance of emotion in reference to life and this too has relevance here.

I think this aspect is important with respect to psychic phenomena generally.

Researchers trying to demonstrate psi in the lab frequently wonder about the small but significant statistical psi effects recorded, and this leads to all kinds of questions as to what exactly is the point of a small but significant psi effect.

I even read one researcher discuss the idea that a small but significant psi effect evolved to give us an advantage in the wild, and perhaps other animals have it too.

To me, I think what's really being shown is how unsuitable psi is to being a lab-based subject of study.

Paranormal researcher Trisha Robertson, author of the highly recommended 'Things to do when you're dead', makes the very good and often missed point that psi is *emotionally driven*: think death bed visions, crisis apparitions etc.

It's hardly surprising therefore, if psi is emotionally driven, that you are going to get a very poor showing of psi in a lab. In most lab run studies, researchers recruit from a bunch of undergrads who turn up because it sounds mildly interesting, they have no emotional investment in the results. Is it any surprise therefore that any results recorded are essentially 'running on idle'?

This is why psi is better suited to field study and a more social science approach, rather than a lab based form of study.

I think the engine analogy is quite a good indicator for how psi operates.

In most situations, the engine is running on idle, and it is this idle mode which tends to be picked up in the lab, and is generally unimpressive.

In the real world, on occasion, when the emotional driver is applied to the pedal, the engine revs up, and we see its true power.

In my view, lab based results of psi aren't giving us a true picture of how psi operates in the real world, precisely because the key component, the emotional driver of psi, is not present.

"Life is the way it is in order to make sure we learn the things we came here to learn, and enough of it to make sure we learn what it means and how it feels to be separate, what it means and how it feels to be in a body and control that body, and the parameters of that body, and what time and space look and feel like so that after we cross over we wont' simply merge back into the great collective consciousness and lose our identity."

Well, we've discussed this before, Art, and we always come to the same divide: you see this life as a means to an end. Nothing more, apparently. And while I too see the earthly experience as part of a larger plan, I think it has value, richness, and meaning *in itself*, quite apart from what we "learn" or "accomplish" here. That's something you never seem willing, or eager, to talk about.

Yes—the earth adventure operates through illusion. But so, for example, does an epic movie. Is a movie important solely for what it can teach us? Or is there value in it also for the sheer thrill of savoring the trip, with all its ups and downs?

Hi Bruce. As you know from my postings over the years on here and on Paranormalia I've made identical observations about the precognitive nature of ordinary dreams for a long time, and come to pretty much the same conclusions.

About 3 years ago I made a concerted effort to record every dream during the night for 14 consecutive nights. The way I record mine, you'll recall, is literally with a digital recorder each time I'd stir from sleep during the course of the night, rather than writing down all I could remember first thing in the morning. This meant that I retained records of far more dream material than I otherwise would have had access to.

I would then transcribe the key words and descriptions for each dream the next day and as the experiment went on would colour code in blue those sections or references in dreams which were apparently inspired by events before the dream , and used red to highlight those which appeared to reference events that were encountered after the dream.

What became apparent as I did this was the sheer frequency with which "future stuff" turned up in dreams..essentially at least once per night (this would not have been obvious if I'd recorded the dreams in the traditional, first thing in the morning way..as many of the matches occurred in the earlier in the sleep cycle dreams which would ordinarily be lost by morning). Overall the ratio of future-inspired imagery to past-inspired imagery was 50:50...or perhaps a slight lead for the future in fact.

From this one might conclude not that the future was being accessed in some different or magical way, but that time in the dream state was simply irrelevant. One appears to me to be forming dream stories using largely recent memories...but that these were just as likely to be memories of tomorrow as of yesterday. We are remembering the future.

Some other observations were that often different dreams in the course of one night, or dreams over the course of several nights, might all refer to the same future event..but the event was no less trivial for the repeated attention it seemed to get.

Like you I too find that if I don't actively pay attention to dreams I don't notice any strange correlation with the future turning up at all.So I haven't for a good long while now, as I've simply not been bothered, reckoning there's nothing else to prove to myself, and nothing I can do with the information bar desperately trying to impress polite friends with the latest example!

But a few months ago things took a somewhat confusing twist..and its been hinted at in other postings above: telepathy.

I told a particular friend in another city about a dream I'd just woken from which featured him. He reported back with amusement that the dream story matched events that been going on in his life in the preceding few days. Speculating that it might be the case that if I tell other friends I've dreamt about them quickly enough after I have that they too might see connections to their own lives, I found the opportunity to do so twice..with two different people..later that same week. And each time they indeed matched my words to their long distance personal activities.

I've done it a few times since and of course its not always the case that the person I tell identifies any matches. That doesn't necessarily mean they don't exist...merely that they don't make the connection and I obviously can't make it for them!

The problem with this new twist is that of course friends feature as characters in dreams that appear to match my own future experiences...so how do I distinguish a precog dream about me from a "telepathic" one about them, if indeed there is such a thing? One could speculate that its all precog..im precognising the conversation in which hte friend confirms what they've been doing. But that of course is infuriatingly circular, since the conversation has only come about because I'd had the dream to report......

Hey Lawrence, thanks for checking in! I remember you discussing your precognition studies, but forgot what a conscientious experimenter you are. I’m impressed!

You’ve caught my attention with this:

“Overall the ratio of future-inspired imagery to past-inspired imagery was 50:50 “

That approaches my own conclusions. While I’ve given my rate of future dreaming at 25%, I think it’s actually higher. Because in calculating that ratio, I toss out all the dreams I’ve score as “maybe’s.” If half of those were psychic, the figure would rise to 32%.

“. . . From this one might conclude not that the future was being accessed in some different or magical way, but that time in the dream state was simply irrelevant.”

Exactly. Here’s an analogy I once came up with in trying to capture that irrelevance: our dreams open a window to a timeless realm. And in peering through it, we’re just as likely to look to the left (the past), as to the right (the future).

Did you know that you’re in precise agreement with J.W. Dunne? I was reminded of this yesterday, when I saw this on the Psi Encyclopedia, in Robert Rosenberg’s wonderful, lengthy, history of the research into precognition:

“After spending some time recording his dreams, [Dunne] observed that they contained information about the future in roughly the same proportion as about the past.”

“I told a particular friend in another city about a dream I'd just woken from which featured him. He reported back with amusement that the dream story matched events that been going on in his life in the preceding few days”...so how do I distinguish a precog dream about me from a "telepathic" one about them, if indeed there is such a thing?”

Great question. And it reminds me of an experience I had a week ago with Michael. In a private email, I jokingly told him about a dream I had just had about my giving piano lessons to Hitler. He replied that he was currently listening to an audiobook that discusses Hitler’s piano lessons!

Now I’m 70 years old, have watched a million movies about that strange guy, taught piano for most of my life, and never, in thought or dream, connected him with the instrument. Much less with piano *lessons*. Has anyone here ever had a single thought about Hitler as a piano student?

And while this may seem to some people like just a strange coincidence, I then went back to my recording of that dream, and found a list of other unusual specifics that link it to our conversation. (I haven’t mentioned them to you yet, Michael.)

And remember—this is the sort of thing that happens one out of four times I document a dream.

I had a similar experience with Michael several years ago, one that I discussed here in real time as it was happening. I correctly dreamt that he’s into Mexican folk music—not something he had ever discussed up to then, or that I would have expected. Not to mention that it’s hardly something I would expect to dream about—I’m pretty sure it’s the only dream about Michael I’ve ever had.

And the point is—both these experiences got me asking the same question: is this precognition, or telepathy with someone I know?

My guess is that because the dreams correspond specifically to future *conversations*, they both have to do with seeing the future.

But the truth is, it doesn’t matter much to me. Because as I see it, there’s only One Mind, and it knows everything. And when we finally vacate this physical dimension and gaze at reality from the larger perspective, our need to separate these various phenomena and pin labels on them, will seem downright funny.

Done. I should say on the 50-50 or 25% figures, that in my case I'm referring to the percentages of those parts of the dream material which could be readily identified as relating to real life experiences. That's to say perhaps 80% of the imagery in dreams had no apparent correlation to real life, whether past or present..but of the (let's say) 20% which did have a correlation, one half or more OF THOSE were seemingly future-influenced, the remainder influenced by the past.

Having said that what I did also note is that although the majority of the connections I noticed to future events were realised in the first day or two after the dream, there were occassionally matches which turned up much later...weeks or months even. This raises for me the strong possibility that that vast majority of dream material - the 80% - may contain a lot more future-themed imagery than anticipated, but that it simply goes unnoticed because the greater the gap the less likely the dream is to be in your thoughts when the matching event occurs.

By implication the impression that most dreams that "come true" do so the next day may be misleading. Maybe a far greater number come true at any length of time in the future, we're just far less likely to ever be aware of it.

Bruce Siegel:
"I had a similar experience with Michael several years ago, one that I discussed here in real time as it was happening. I correctly dreamt that he’s into Mexican folk music—not something he had ever discussed up to then, or that I would have expected."

Bruce, I feel that this could be a matter of 'if the cap fit's.'?

I think a sombrero would suit Michael well. Together with his beard, I think he could audition for a remake of: 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly!'

"I should say on the 50-50 or 25% figures, that in my case I'm referring to the percentages of those parts of the dream material which could be readily identified as relating to real life experiences."

Thanks for clarifying that. Looking again at the statement about Dunne that I quoted, it seems that Dunne is saying the same thing. And there's a big difference between that, and saying that half of his dreams are past-oriented, and half future-oriented.

Your point about some dreams taking a long time to come true also rings true. Art's 2-year fish story is a great example.

Bruce,
This kind of thing doesn't just happen in dreams. I have observed it often in waking conversations, especially if the conversation gets imaginative or silly.

Not too long ago Matt Rouge and I were chatting on Facebook; arguing politics really. I made a comment about people on the left becoming so violent that they're carrying baseball bats to hit people over the head with who disagree with them. Matt made a retort about maybe they just want to take some practice swings. I responded "yeah. aiming to hit into right field". The word "right" intentionally being used as a double entendre and mostly to mean I thought they wanted to hit some right wing political people. A day or two later the shooting of the Republican congressmen at the baseball field happened. The concept of a political left wing person attacking political right wing people combined with the juxtaposition of the baseball bat and the baseball field was interesting. ... The first news story I read specifically said that the shooter (a left wing guy) was aiming into right field. Not a great example technically, but has more meaning if you were there to feel the spirit of the thing.

Eric, I agree that precognition can occur while awake. To my mind, though, the phenomenon by definition involves thoughts or images that enter the mind for no apparent reason. That is, until an inexplicable matching event comes along.

Since your joke was prompted by Matt's comment, this experience seems to me to fall into a different category. But hey—it's *your* experience, and you may have legitimate reasons to see it differently.

SC: Wikipedia's entry on "Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries" says (with underlined links that are inactive here):

"Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" is a popular song with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Lew Brown, published in 1931.[1] Ethel Merman introduced this song in George White's Scandals of 1931.[2] A Rudy Vallee version, recorded in 1931, spent five weeks in the top-10 pop music charts.[3] The song was revived in 1953 by singer Jaye P. Morgan.[4] The song title gave rise to the revue of composer Ray Henderson's music called It's the Cherries, which launched the American Composer Series in 2000.[5]

One of the entries in google's list said that the phrase was used to denote a pleasant situation. Another entry said that it is often used ironically. (For instance, Erma Bombeck titled one of her books, If life is a bowl of cherries, what am I doing with the pits?)

Hi
I am Simran and i read blog about Precognitive dreams. I am pursuing M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology and also doing a research on which type of personalities are more vulnerable to have precognitive dreams. It would be great if I could contact you and get some literature on the same matter. I would also like you could share some of your experiences of precognitive dreams. I assure that the information would be kept confidential. You could contact me on my mail id: simran609parekh@gmail.com